After years of waiting, Australia’s V8 Supercars has finally crossed the other pond and introduced their fierce touring car series to the US. After a weekend at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas, I’ve had a good taste of the action… but they only teased us.
I don’t want to sound disappointed, because that’s not entirely the case, but I stopped keeping track of how many Australians were apologizing to me for how “boring” it was. And if you’ve followed any of V8SC’s action and saw this weekend’s race, you may see why. It is to no fault of teams or drivers, they put on a helluva show and on pure style alone laid down some of the most entertaining racing COTA has seen yet. Snarling V8s with shotgun-blast shifting, and no fear of contact or regard for curbs as they flew across COTA on two, and at times even on a single tire trying to grasp the track for grip.
V8 Supercars is well known for their rowdy racing antics in their home races. The combination of relatively relaxed contact rules, course rules (However, they still have tight walls or tire barriers to keep them on course), sturdy race cars, and fantastic drivers culminates into a unique road racing series that doesn’t mind a lot a little bump and grind to make a pass. Part of the reason why people refer to V8SC as an Australian NASCAR is that like NASCAR, contact and crashing is a bit of an expected aspect in the racing. For the Austin 400, things didn’t quite line up to allow for that.
The new course still presents many challenges for teams and drivers, and a decision by V8SC on tires all conspired to deprive the drivers of the setting needed to bring out their aggressive racing. The drivers are deadly consistent with each other, with the top-ten qualifying runs often separated by tenths; when they’re extruded into a line of cars it’s hard for them to bunch back up into a dogfight. But when kept in a large pack, this consistency keeps the racing tight, entertaining, and aggressive; something we saw on race starts and after yellow flags when the cars were regrouped.I believe that course layout and tire choices were some of the factors that kept the racing civilized.
The new course surface and layout(s) is still proving to be a big challenge to the various series racing COTA for the first time. This is the first time for the short “National Circuit”, which is a short cut that bypasses turns six through eleven from the “Grand Prix” circuit that has been used at every event so far, including the 2012 F1 race, and Grand-Am. The short cut diverts the course in the middle of the s-bends after turn two, and has a very fun looking left-right kink that also kicks the cars up and over the apex which dips in the middle of the kink before taking a quick left and aiming the cars back onto the old back-straight before turn twelve. The section slows down the cars and chokes them down into a single file, even though it was a super entertaining corner as the drivers cut the kink as tight as possible with their cars flying up onto two wheels, and sometimes even floating by with a single tire gripping the road. After riding with Fabian Coulthard during the preview event on the Grand Prix circuit, the long course would have been better for the racing action. The blind left of turn 10 is a test of driver mettle, especially when taken right: flat out. The back straight also provides fantastic passing opportunities, beginning with the hairpin of turn 11, and with the 180 mile-per-hour blast down the back straight into turn 12, the cars have to tank on the brakes hard and dig into the tight hairpin. Turn 12 with the back straight was one of the most exciting corners of Grand Am.
The road surface is still rubbering in, and with the National Circuit there was a lot of playing around with lines to discover the fastest route through the unknown piece of track, something that COTA’s relatively low-danger curbing and run-offs allowed a lot of. Those wide run-offs dropped the element of danger that keeps drivers fighting for position on their home tracks; at COTA any errors put cars gingerly off onto the run-offs and they would calmly jump back into the pack. This is a stark contrast to many of the home circuits with their tightly barriered courses where a little bump and grind will push a few cars into a wall, and into each other.
The combination of the new surface and still-new layout (regardless of the shortcut) made setup decisions tough for many teams who were fighting various handling problems while dealing with the provided hard-compound tires. With concerns over tire degradation with the technical track, V8SC tested the waters with hard compound tires throughout the weekend. What they learned, however, was that the tires held up much better than expected. With some tire degradation comes opportunities for passing as drivers wear their tires at different rates depending on driver style and strategy. With all drivers wearing tires fairly equally, there didn’t seem to be much of a chance to upset the balanced and consistent field as the races wore on.
Despite some of these challenges, the drivers put on a wicked show for everyone. What aggression they lacked in fender-into-fender contact, they put into the car and course. They are very keen to find the fastest line possible, even if it means getting airborne. The drivers enjoyed the course’s challenging layout, even if a little frustrated with the road to finding a solid setup for the weekend. “We’ll come back next year,” said Whincup, “We’ll change it up a bit, maybe we’ll throw some soft tires on, maybe we’ll take the mufflers off. It’s a bit embarrassing being so quiet compared to the support categories. We can do plenty of things to spice it up for next year.”
And at the end of the weekend, that is what the inaugural Austin 400 is: a learning experience. With just under 67,000 in attendance, with about 10% of those being Australians, we had a solid turnout of local race fans. The series has a lot to bring to US race fans. We now know what these Aussies need to thrive, and I look forward to next year being an epic return. V8SC has caught the attention of US race fans who would normally not come to a roadrace, in particular NASCAR fans. With a solid push into US race culture (Like I’ve said before, a Ken Block-style assault into the media) and a few changes to the recipe with the course and tire decisions, V8 Supercars looks to be one of the most fun racing series offered in the US. The teams were awesome to joke with in paddock, the cars are epic to watch fly across curbs, and the drivers are fierce in their racecraft. The perfect storm is brewing, it just needs the right day.
For now though, here’s some cool wicked photos from the weekend. Hit up my Flickr for higher res photos and desktop-sized goodness.
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![http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/2014-Chevy-SS-Daytona-500-053.jpg">](http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/2014-Chevy-SS-Daytona-500-053.jpg">){kind=link}
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